So, I've been coming home from school every day with stories for Barb that just crack us both up, and she has suggested that I need to be recording them - and I think they are most likely hilarious enough to share on here! Of course, to protect identities, all tales will be vague... And so begins the adventures of Kindergarten 1, the Noah's Ark classroom:

Week 1:- A child cut their gluestick up with their scissors. Another one cut up all their twistable crayons with theirs. Scissors seem to be a problem.- 'Ms. Konig - he karate chopped me and I didn't want him to.'... 'Well, he wrestled me and I didn't want him to do that.'... 'So what happened exactly?'... 'He wants to play karate and I want to wrestle.'- 'Teacher, Teacher - she poked me really hard with her pencil'...'No I didn't, well, only because he showed me how sharp his pencil was on my finger and I was showing him how sharp my pencil was.'Week 2:- 2 of my kids used up entire bottles of hand sanitizer in the course of a day, washing their hands, feet, knees, desks, and more with the contents of their bottles. Augh! Why I only catch these antics after they have occurred, I don't know. All hand sanitizers have now been confiscated and are being saved for when they are actually needed.- 'Teacher - he said my picture looks like a baby picture'... 'Only because she told me my picture looked like a baby drew it.'- I sent homework for both the parents and the kids for the first time, and told the kids that they were only to do one page, and to tell their parents that they should read the note explaining which days to complete the homework. Three came back the next day with the whole pack completed...'Mom said that if she had to do homework, I did too.'Week 3:- 3 of my kids decided to give themselves haircuts with the scissors their parents so kindly sent in as part of the school supplies. We had to have a lengthy class discussion about what supplies can be used for.- 2 children disobeyed in a big way, and lost their recess privileges for a week... the first day, I had them draw me pictures after they spent 10 minutes crying, and they drew pictures of themselves crying buckets of tears. When they ran out of space on the paper, they asked for more, and when I said they could use the back, they drew themselves crying again!- 'Class, how do we sit on the carpet?'... Chorus of 'Criss-cross applesauce, hands in our lap, eyes forward'... while still standing, facing the wrong way, and busy playing with others. Hmmm...

Well, I am sure that that is not a comprehensive list of events that have occurred and made me chuckle in the last three weeks of Kindergarten! But I hope you enjoyed what I did remember and manage to get down!

And because I hate to leave you without any pictures... check out the fantastic cake that was brought in for one of the two birthdays that we celebrated in class this week!

Well, one year ago, I was nervously preparing to leave my family and friends in Canada, to head off to Malawi, via a quick stopover visit with my German family. I spent 8 months working at the Jesuit Refugee Service of Malawi, in Dzaleka Refugee Camp, and that time spent in Lilongwe and the rest of the country made clear to me where I was going to be living (hopefully, for life). I am extremely happy to be done with my studies and off into the 'real world', and am loving working at ABC Christian Academy in Lilongwe, but I know that I would never have seen this in my future at this time last year! Thank God for that, because I had a lot of learning to do before I was ready for this adventure!

This is the week that the INDEVOURs of 2015 are heading out to their respective placements in Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, Nepal, Peru, Senegal, and Vietnam. Two lucky INDEVOURS will be joining me in the ranks of those who experience Malawi, and I hope that their placements impact their lives in similar ways to my time on placement last year.The 8 month placement that the International Development program at the Unviersity of Waterloo requires are some of the hardest and biggest months of growth for most of us who have completed it. Prepare to have mood swings of an intensity you have never before encountered - you can go from loving where you are to vehemently hating it, in a matter of seconds. I pray that for this year's INDEVOURS, they will experience more of the 'loving' than hating', and that when they are able to step back, process, and reflect on their time on placement, they will come to the same conclusion that I did. Yes, as a new program, INDEV has its flaws, but the placement supercedes all aspects of irritation as it prepares new graduates extremely well for work in their field, and gives them an accurate picture of what their future may look like, if they choose to continue in the development field.And Ian and Alison - Takulandirani! Welcome to Malawi!

INDEVOURS 2015 (Click the picture to go to their website and investigate their placements and blogs!)

7 pizzas and 1 pan of eggplant pizzas for some gluten-free folks. Made my heart happy to spend the afternoon baking!

Barb and I were blessed to have another housemate, Katie II, for the last few weeks, and she leaves on Monday to head back to the States for school. She has been working with the audiology clinic for about a month, and was able to have quite a few Malawi adventures along the way - outreach up north, and a safari weekend in the south.She got back from the safari this evening, and walked into the middle of pizza production! Barb and I worked together to invite all the single staff, and make enough pizzas and no-bake haystack cookies for dessert for the whole bunch!

We ended up with about 20 people coming over, and it was a lot of fun to chat and intermittently eat (cooking 7 pizzas in 1 oven takes a long time!!), and it was great for everyone to get to spend some off-duty time together. Once the evening wound up, we tidied, and then sat down to have one last housemate conversation before Katie left. It was lovely having you, Katie, and we are already missing your presence!

On the last night of our orientation at African Bible College, the whole staff went out to the Kumbali Cultural village for dinner. We got to eat traditional Malawian foods including nsima (corn meal porridge), steamed pumpkin leaves, and beef in tomato sauce. We were also greatly entertained by a sort-of singer named Scott Gray, who has written an album of songs that portray the Malawian quirks in a light-hearted manner. I thought you might also enjoy hearing one of his songs - 'Beep Beep... Odi' is about the public transportation system: minibus.

I love my church! The people that make it up are so loving and genuine, and I can't wait to see them every week! We are doing a really great series this year, as our pastor is casting vision for the church. The first three months were about Integrity - or, our personal relationship with God and how that works out in our lives. The second three months were about Family - how we interact in our families as Christians, and how that looks; and the third set of three months, which we are currently in, are about Church - how families and individuals work together to build up the church. It is awesome! Sunday mornings typically run from 8:30 until 12:30. There is a one hour Renovate Class that happens Sunday mornings before the service, where we learn the foundational truths of the Bible. Then we have our regular service, which opens with about an hour of worship, followed by a sermon that is around an hour long, and we end the morning with some time of talking with each other before heading out.

The IFC vision captured on a nice new banner that we display in the church.

And a pretty flower - I am still so amazed by the beauty that this country is filled with!

This week and the last have both been absolutely crazy! I have been putting in 12+ hour days at school getting the classroom ready, going to orientation meetings, sorting through the resources in the classroom, learning the curriculum, and preparing lesson plans. On top of that, both my housemate and I got sick at the beginning of the week, and have been struggling to get healthy again while having very full schedules. To give you a picture of how boring yet busy our life has been, tonight I got home from school at 4:45, which was about an hour and a half earlier than most nights. My housemate, Barb, was feeling well enough to be able to speak again, and with those two things, we decided we must have a celebratory evening! So for dinner we ate instant soup... because it doesn't hurt her throat, and it doesn't hurt my stomach. Oh well! The adventure will continue, and it is going to be amazing!

The first week of school has been a lot of fun for me! Our mornings start at 6:45 with staff devotions, then from 7:00-7:15 the children begin to arrive and play on the playground. We make our way inside and do a welcome routine, and then settle in for the meat of the day: phonics, maths, reading, writing, Bible, science, and social studies. We have taken, on average, 4 bathroom breaks a day... I keep trying to reduce the amount of disruptions these have on our routine, but these little bladders seem to need more time to reacquaint themselves with a school routine. The children also get a snack break and recess in the middle of the day, and head home just after 12:00. My teaching assistant, Miss Moyo, has been a huge help to me - she is already familiar with a lot of the procedures that are in place at ABCCA that I just haven't had the chance to learn - i.e, the ABCCA walk: children stand single file with their hands clasped behind their back, and walk silently from classroom to classroom. I officially have a class of 19 five year olds, and they are full of energy and raring to go! I keep ending the day needing a nap and throat lozenge, but I have been told that after a few months, you get used to this and are able to manage better! I am still working on putting the bulletin boards together in my classroom, and definitely have some more supplies to add to the shelves, but it is almost there!

The welcome door - we are asked to decorate our doors with a theme and the children's names.

The storage closets - scary things filled with items I am sure I will treasure once I finally find them and understand what they are all for!

Our Noah's Ark theme wall mural on the back wall with the centers set up in front of it - art corner by the sink, reading table, and a small carpet for manipulatives!

The art center.

The manipulatives corner.

The front of the classroom - number line and alphabet above the board, writing and phonics flash cards at the bottom.

The view from the front door.

The circle time carpet and bulletin board where we do reading and calendar time.

The cubby wall, all ready for backpacks and with names up (My teaching assistant and I made little Ark nametags and cubby tags for all the children)!

The reading table.

Our discipline and rewards chart: every day, children start 'On the Ark and ready to learn'. If a child does not follow the rules, their froggy moves down to 'Cloudy skies', 'Stuck in stormy seas', or even to 'Chose not to get on the Ark'. If they follow the rules or go above and beyond expectations, they go up to 'Hope in the Dove's olive branch' and then to 'Standing in God's promises', where they get a sticker. Five stickers mean that they can choose a treasure from the treasure box.

We learned a Chichewa worship song in orientation this week. I have actually heard it sung before, but never saw the words written out - and having a translation with them was awesome! It even has actions!

And, on my way home from school late on Friday night (getting that classroom in order is taking a lot of work!!), I heard a rustling, turned on my flashlight, and got to see a cute little hedgehog!

Tomorrow morning is the first day of school - the classroom looks decent enough to work, and all I have left to finish are a few name tags and (EEK!) the lesson plans for the week! But Monday is only an assembly with parents and children, so I don't teach any proper lessons till Tuesday.

I have officially been back in Malawi for one week. As I walked home from preparing my classroom at the school today, I got to watch the beautiful pink sky as the sun set behind the Lilongwe hills, as I listened to the (newly repaired) megaphone from the mosque, calling people to prayer. Stopping to chat with neighbours on the way home, I get to watch a one year old practice running on his wobbly legs - he started walking yesterday, a group of children playing with their dog in the yard, and enjoy the place that God has brought me to. God is good. He whispered to me on Friday night, while I finished unpacking, "I'm going to make this place your home".

I am settling in, finishing up orientation and classroom preparations, and hope to soon be ready to go for Monday morning when the first of twenty little ones that I am being entrusted with, arrive with their parents to meet me. The excitement is building as the stresses dissipate! Thank you for your prayers as I go into this last bit of time before the big day arrives!

Our dining room.

The kitchen (there is a fridge on the left just outside of the picture frame)

The front yard.

The aquaculture system - fish pond and crops: the water is pumped into the garden where the fish poop feeds the plants, which filter the water it returns to the fish full of beneficial nutrients and plant matter to eat.

Oh I had a little bit too much fun this week! A friend in Malawi texted me and asked if we could chat soon, as we haven't gotten a chance to speak in a while. Well, I was in the throes of finalizing packing details and going to the cottage one last time with the family, and told him that it would have to wait until I got back from the cottage...

I sort of neglected to tell him (or the others in my bible study), that I would be leaving directly from the cottage for Malawi! So, I had a lot of fun when I arrived today, as they hadn't settled on a place and time for this week's bible study. I texted our group messaging board and asked if they could please just pick a date so that it wouldn't be so much back and forth... and then promptly offered to host it at my house! That got a few virtual groans... 'yeah Katie, we'll definitely meet you in Canada', and then... 'ARE YOU BACK?". It was a really fun way to surprise everyone, and we had a lovely time on Saturday night, sharing and eating a potluck dinner together.

Orange dust stuck to my feet, warn sun on my skin, and absolute exhaustion. Yup, I have arrived back in Malawi! I touched down today and was picked up by ABC staff at the airport. I am working on moving in to my house, which is a 4 bed, 4 bath home - I am currently sharing with only one person, but after Christmas, we'll be full!

This weekend is time to move in and get used to the time zone (so, of course, I'll be up early and out the door to visit with friends and catch up!!), and starting next week will be orientation and frantic prep of classrooms.

I apologize for the quietness of the blog during the summer - it was busy at home, and I wanted to really settle in and enjoy being with my family. So, I kept track of things I wanted to share, and as I have time, I will write and back-post them!

Thank you all for your support and prayers - it means the world to me! I am so thankful and amazed that not only did I make every single connection, but all 4 of my checked bags did too! Not only that, but I had enough of a layover in Amsterdam that I was able to leave the airport and spend a few hours exploring the city. It made an otherwise long and tedious journey a lot more interesting!

Landed in Amsterdam and ready to go adventuring!

The original Heineken's Brewery - no longer producing beer, just giving tours.

A big weeping willow that a heron was hiding under.

A boat for my dad - beautifully made out of wood, and named Kingfisher.

Such a beautiful view down the canal.

Dichotomy: The back of a cathedral is home to a shop that sells drug paraphernalia.

Such a green city - it is fascinating!

One of the many adorable houseboats along the canals.

The architecture is so amazing!

There were herons all along the canals, within feet of motor boats, people, and houseboats - they just stared at us all as we went by.

Sculptures on top of the building? Why not?

OK, I was pretty much drooling the entire boat ride over the architecture.

Didn't have the time to go in, but got to see the Anne Frank house from the outside!

Gorgeous old cathedral architecture.

A cute little tea garden that I walked past and wished I could stop at,

A pretty car for my brothers to salivate over.

A bar with a statue of Mary (I think?) in the window.

Heading off to Nairobi!

So beautiful!

I have a thing for clouds... they are so diverse!

A mountain peeking over the cloud cover as we arrived in Nairobi.

Beautiful canals and beautiful ancient houses.

A map of the inner city - most of which I covered either in the boat tour on on foot.

The clock tower of the train station.

Got to watch a gorgeous sunrise twice - once on top of the clouds, and once underneath the clouds!

One of my favourites.

I could see city lights underneath the clouds - they were still in the dark.

Author

Welcome! My name is Katiana and I am a newly minted development professional pursuing my dream to live out Isaiah 1:17 to the best of my abilities. I am passionate about teaching children and working with vulnerable families to improve their lives sustainably.

Caveat

This blog is composed of my personal opinions, which do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of institutions or organizations that I may be or have been affiliated with.